STUDENTS SLEEP IN THE HIGH-RENT DISTRICT

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The listing at 10 Buick Street is pretty impressive: seven-and-a-half furnished rooms, including full kitchen and two baths; totally wired and well-maintained; air-conditioned; 24-hour security; exercise facility; and other generous amenities.

But it's the view, from the Harvard boathouse to the Blue Hills, with the Charles at your feet and the best parts of Cambridge and Boston in between, that sells the place. When they tell you the rent, only about $1,000 a month per person, your elation comes with a queasiness that tells you there has to be a catch.

There is: You have to be enrolled at Boston University (yearly tuition: $27,042) to move in. Ten Buick Street, the heart of BU's Student Village ("stu-v" or "stu-ville" to the locals), is one of the finest dormitory addresses around.

Though they didn't want to hazard a guess on what their 11th- floor corner unit might cost if it were a condominium on the open market, the four upperclassmen know they're sampling upper-class living. "It's safe to say that after we all graduate, we won't be living anywhere like this," says Amanda Fabbro, 20, of Redwood City, Calif.

Yes, that's probably quite safe: According to Susanna T. Stiefel of Carol Brenner Realty, a 1,200-square-foot apartment in this neighborhood with this 11th-floor view would sell for upward of $500,000.

Fabbro, a senior majoring in psychology and public health, and her three roommates - Lana Shirley, 21, of Portland, Maine; Danielle Gain, 22, of Greensboro, N.C.; and Eda Januhowski, 22, of Houston, all fifth-year students studying physical therapy - know they're lucky.

"A lot of friends come to visit from other schools and they just love it. I had one guy say, `I don't think I would ever leave this room.' " Shirley says. The word is getting around, too. In a ranking of "Dorms Like Palaces" on the Princeton Review Web site, BU ranks No. 1.

The roomies are seated in the living room, whose expansive view glistens from dawn till sunset, when golden hues are reflected in the glory of the downtown skyline. The room is a tasteful blend of roommate contributions that include aboriginal art that Shirley and Januhowski purchased during their semester abroad in Australia, and a memorial triptych of photos referencing the World Trade Center towers, purchased during a trip last spring.

Neither this room nor their bedrooms, which also have received earnest decorating attention, show the wear that dorm rooms sometimes do. True, the building is only in its third year of occupancy, "but they seem to fill the holes every summer," says Gain, referring to nail holes in the walls. "They're keeping it up." Gain has lived in the building since she was a junior.

Also, all the rooms are wired. Each bedroom has connections for ethernet, telephone, and television, and the living room has at least one of each as well. The women all use the ethernet, of course, but each says a cellphone makes more economic sense than a land line; only Fabbro's is connected, and that's only because her mother wants it to be, and pays for it.

There's only one TV in the apartment, part of an entertainment center that has all the right initials (TV, DVD, VCR, CD, and more), but it doesn't get a lot of use, the women say. "We're not your average college students," Shirley says. "We study a lot."

Contrary to whispered longings from BU freshmen, who aren't allowed to live here, the building does not have cable, only something called "enhanced TV," which is all the local stations plus TBS and one or two other out-of-town signals. (Note to gullible freshmen: There's no swimming pool on the roof, either.)

The women's regard for home comforts extends to the kitchen. Among them, they've assembled two coffee makers, an espresso machine, a coffee mill, two popcorn poppers (one oil, one hot air), a hot pot, a toaster oven, a crock pot, a rice cooker, a George Foreman grill, and a much-adored VitaMix blender. Those are in addition to the full fridge, stove, disposal, and microwave that came with the place.

With so many conveniences piled on top of the luscious view, it's a wonder not every BU student isn't clamoring to get into the building, which could accommodate only about 1,800 of them. But it costs more to live there, and the 24-hour security isn't to everyone's liking.

"A lot of people opt to move to South Campus because they don't want to deal with the guards," Januhowski says. They're quite friendly, she says, but her friends with boyfriends don't want to have to come down and sign them in every night.